AL RITCHIE: With today’s casting call for extras in the movie,
“Little Chicago,” we thought it would be appropriate to dig into
the archives for some historical information about Bradford’s
legendary gangster period.

What we found is just the tip of the iceberg but if “Little
Chicago” goes forward, we’ll try to pass along the entire story of
this notorious time in Bradford’s past.

But today, let us tell you about Al Ritchie, considered to be
the person who orchestrated much of Bradford’s Prohibition era
violence.

When Ritchie was shot at pointblank range in 1931, it brought an
abrupt end to the brutal racket killings in Bradford that had
claimed at least 60 lives since federal dry laws had descended on
the nation in 1919.

“The city’s raucous days as ‘Little Chicago’ were over,” The Era
stated in a history of the gangster era published in the
newspaper’s centennial edition in 1977.

“The era of bootlegging, particularly the furious 1920s, spurred
gang deaths in both Olean and Bradford, a district that gained
notoriety as ‘The War Zone.’

“Bradford had developed quickly into a bustling racket town. It
was, after all, a thriving metropolis brimming with oil money. It
also was a convenient halfway point for Buffalo gangsters running
bootleg Canadian whiskey to Pittsburgh,” the story goes on.

In the first years of Prohibition, the Olean and Bradford gangs
refrained from invading each others’ territories.

That ended when John Barber, kingpin of the Bradford mob, tried
to expand his influence in the Olean area. But one day while he was
in Olean, he was knocked to the ground by two shotguns blasts. Two
men approached and, leveling their revolvers, unloaded seven .32
caliber slugs into his body.

From then on, a blood bath ensued. Olean racketeers wiped out
their enemies in the rural areas of Cattaraugus County, sometimes
dumping the bodies across the state line into Pennsylvania.

Bradford mobs saw the advantage in motoring bodies across the
state line and followed the example of their Olean
counterparts.

“The rationale was that it is easier for a hoodlum to cross the
line with a body in his car than for a cop to chase a killer
there,” the story goes on.

More when we have space.

Oh, and for those of you wondering – That casting call will be
2-7 p.m. today at Grace Lutheran Church social hall.